Who will be Queensland Health's next CIO?

Queensland's health department is hunting for a chief information officer willing to take on a massive program of work in the wake of Colin McCririck's departure.

The CIO of Queensland Health also serves as the chief executive of the department's $485 million tech arm, eHealth Queensland, reporting to director-general Michael Walsh.

From tomorrow, that role will become vacant when former IT chief McCririck leaves to take up a job with IBM in the United States.

The health department is now searching [pdf] for a successor, who will be its fourth IT boss since mid-2014.

The role comes with a big remit: the health department recently unveiled its first 20-year plan for IT investment, and it has several large-scale programs of work underway.

It is hoping to soon wrap up a long overdue migration off Windows XP, and once that is complete it will tackle the $91 million replacement of its pathology system as well as the massive overhaul of its end-of-life critical HBCIS system.

eHealth Queensland supports the IT needs of the state's 16 hospitals and health services, as well as the 80,000-strong Queensland Health. It employs around 1100 full-time staff from an annual budget of $485 million.

"As the chief executive officer/CIO of the organisation, the role is required to ensure the operations of the organisation achieve a balance between its status as part of the state’s public health system whilst also ensuring that its activities are efficient and achieve best practice standards for customers," Health's job ad states.

"Accordingly, the role requires an understanding of the strategic issues facing the public health system, the broader eHealth agenda and trends impacting information technology in the health care environment, with established business acumen to ensure value-for-money outcomes are achieved and core information technology activities are delivered."

Experience in running major IT projects and operations, as well as leading managed and support services over a "large geographic area for a complex organisation" is essential, the department said.

The new CIO will also need to be a "proven change manager" with "exceptional interpersonal, stakeholder engagement and communication skills" and "highly developed risk management, and corporate governance capabilities".

Applications for the role close on July 25.